Joel Cummins: It is night zero of Umphreys McGee Late Summer Tour.

Brian Ripple: Night Zero. Perfect, that’s kind of why I’m calling you.

JC: I know, man, Late Summer tour coming back to Montana. I am really psyched about this place. I was just sitting back here talking about it. I’ve never been to Pine Creek Lodge before but, I’ve looked at some videos and pictures and the vibe looks off the charts.

BR: Yeah, it definitely is. It’s a pretty awesome vibe for around here. And a rabid following, like people love it. Just like you can imagine, I guess, like you’re excited to see.

JC: Yeah man, I’ve spent a good amount of time in Bozeman and Big Sky. I was actually there for my birthday a couple years ago, January 12th. I brought my family out to ski and stuff. So we’ve had some good times in that area.

BR: Yeah. It seems like you guys like it, you come back often, so we appreciate that. I guess the thing to know about Pine Creek is it’s the only real camping venue around here. So doing two day shows there tends to be a little more fun than say, two days at a venue where people disperse a little more and have to go home, or go to a hotel.

JC: Right. Everybody kind can hang around on Friday night.

BR: Yep. Most people, and then have a fun day going floating or hiking on Saturday before the show and you’re already there set up and it’s cool.

JC: Love it.

BR: Yeah. So that’s on September 19th and 20th and you guys have a new album coming out the week before that on the 12th, right?

JC: We do, this has kind of turned into a little album release party. So, congratulations Montana. We’re very excited about this. It’s a really interesting and different album, and in a way, I don’t think an album has ever been made like this before, where, we created these songs over our UM Bowl events. Over the years we had fans vote for their favorite small sections of improvisation, and then we tried to create songs out of those ideas. So it’s kind of turning improvisation on its head and making a composition. And then, you know, we’d be in charge of the arrangement. So this new album ‘Blueprints’ is six of our relatively newer, favorite arrangements of these new songs.

BR: And, the parts that the fans voted on at the UM Bowl, those are what you guys are calling the Legos?

JC: Exactly. Those are the Legos that make up the structure of all these songs.

BR: So is that Lego, like the building block, Lego?

JC: Exactly. Yep, that’s totally the thought. It’s kind of the building blocks the architecture of a song. Some of it is, kind of in a more, I’m not gonna say traditional format ‘cause these are pretty long form pieces of music, but some of it is in more of a linear, like a, b, c format and some of it kind of goes back and forth from section to section.

And there’s a lot of key changes and, a lot of vocal melodies that Brendan then wrote after the fact, or he put together for the album performances. So, the vocal stuff is often parts that come later and we try to make that something that’s a really important part of each piece of music.

BR: Yeah, that’s pretty cool. I agree. I don’t know of anybody coming about an album in this fashion.

JC: It’s a fun concept and something that felt like really tied all this material together in a conceptual way.

BR: Kris Myers is playing drums on all of these?

JC: Yep. We recorded this live pretty much. Very few overdubs in this, but, it was the December sessions at the Top Note of the Metro in Chicago. So we kind of convened there and did some recording in the day and did these live streams in front of a live audience of about a 100 or 120 people each night.

We played each one of these songs on the album in one of those shows as well, but we also recorded ‘em during the day, so there are different variations. But that was a pretty cool session. We kind of set up in a circle, it was all about us being able to communicate in the moment. Especially a song like Unevolved, it’s got a track time of over 20 minutes long. So there’s a lot of sections in that and some of them kind of have the outline of the section and then we fill in the improvisatory parts of it, and some of it now is kind of composition. So it’s this really kind of weird hybrid of those two things where we’re trying to achieve high levels of both of them.

BR: I’ve only heard Out of Focus so far,  but the one thing it sort of reminds me of is some Pink Floyd recordings. Like for instance, in Shine On You Crazy Diamond, how there’s parts 1-5 and parts 6-9.

JC: Yeah, well, I mean I would say that’s definitely the case because Out of Focus is one of the songs that doesn’t really have the vocal section that is repeated and then a section repeated, but after that it’s kind of linear and it just keeps going to new music. That’s something that I think we kind of made intentional too, to give it a little more of a feeling of a story.

BR: Yeah. Makes sense. Do you know who’s coming to play drums at Pine Creek?

JC: The person who will be the full-time drummer will be playing with us at Pine Creek.

BR: That’s a fun way of announcing that.

JC: Yeah. There will be things that happen between now and then, but you know, that’s what I can say at the moment.

BR: Sure thing. I do see you guys are having a pretty awesome listening party in Chicago. I’m sure that’s already sold out on September 8.

JC: Yeah, the Garcia party I think it is. I mean, that’s a tiny place. I’d hope that would be sold out, but yeah, we haven’t been there yet, at least I haven’t been there yet. I am definitely looking forward to it. What a great addition to the Chicago scene. I don’t know if you are familiar with the location, but it’s down, kind of in the West Loop Gate area, where a lot of the great restaurants are, and a kind of a super cool neighborhood to come visit for somebody who no longer lives in Chicago. I live in Santa Monica now but, I’ve had some good times there. So it’s definitely a good spot.

But yeah, we’ll have that as our official first album release party. I think the fact that we recorded in Chicago, we felt like it made sense to do something in Chicago for it.

BR: Yeah, for sure. And it’s pretty small, like you said a couple hundred people maybe, right?

JC: Yep. Exactly. But the actual release date is not till September 13th, so that one’s a little bit ahead of it, but we’re putting it out. We’ll have all the digital formats and then vinyl, and CDs as well.

BR: That is cool. The last time I saw you, was the first time I saw you guys with the new stage plot. I don’t know how that came about, but I kinda like it. 

JC: I got paid a lot of money.

BR: It was a bribe?

JC: It was a bribe. Absolutely. It was actually Ben Factor’s idea. And, the thing that he tried to really sell us on was like, “listen, with all the things that you guys have on stage, this is going to look incredibly better, and it’s possible that your communication will be fine.”

That’s the main thing I was worried about. I mean, the first couple months were hilarious for me because all of my instincts of which direction to look for something were wrong.

BR: Yep. Almost opposite probably. Right?

JC: Yeah. Because I had like flip flopped, you know? So there were a lot of uncomfortable moments for me in the beginning. For a couple months, I kept walking out to the wrong spot on stage.

BR: Well, yeah. How many years had it been on the other side?

JC: I used to be on the other side of Jake until 2009. So that was 11 years that I was on your right, so I got to be close with Brendan from 2009 to 2024.

And, it’s cool now, like Jake, Brendan and I kind of have this little melodic triangle where it’s easy for the three of us to make eye contact.

Stasik and I are always tight. I’m always trying to lock in with the bass, so that’s never been an issue. So I think it does actually work out fine.

BR: Yeah. And, as somebody that’s watching, I think aesthetically nice. It is just as easy to see you, and I see what you mean about the little triangle. I think it’s cool.

What are those little pads called that those guys stand on to mute and unmute the microphones?

JC: Oh yeah, what are those called? Good question. I don’t know the answer.

But I will say this, the other day, one of ‘em was fucking up and it was, it was Bayliss’ and he was very frustrated.

BR: I assume they help a lot, especially with the in-ears. They probably cut down on stage volume significantly?

JC: I got it. They are called Lily Pad. Yeah, it has to cut down on stage sound. I mean, it’s a huge factor. Scotty Zwang who’s playing drums with us now, he doesn’t play quite as loud (as Kris) which is something that I think, has kind of helped us, being able to hear each other.

BR: Nice, what’s your new sound engineer’s name?

JC: New sound engineer is Chris.

BR: There’s so many Chris’.

JC: I gotta look this up to make sure I get it right. Hang on, Ericson. E-R-I-C-S-O-N. Chris Ericson, like normal Chris, C-H-R-I-S. People call him Coach though.

By the way, that guy is crushing it. Like, he was previously the drum tech and the keyboard tech, so, he was very familiar with the band and the sound that we were trying to go after.

I mean, it does cost me a few hundred dollars a month extra to stay high in the mix, but it’s worth it.

BR: Ha Ha. I saw, Chris Mitchell do sound for Sturgill Simpson at the MSU Fieldhouse here. I used to work at the Fieldhouse and I’ve probably seen, I don’t know, over 50 shows in there, and he easily had the best sound. 

JC: That’s great to hear.

BR: Some of it’s the band, but I’d say most of it’s Chris. Most people in town don’t like the way it sounds in there, but I’ve been sticking up for his mix.

JC: That’s cool, yeah Chris Mitchell is the best man. We actually share a birthday.

He was born six years before me though, of course. I’m the younger one. This is one of the only times I’m the younger guy. But yeah, when Chris let us know, I think it was like end of April last year, that he got this offer to go work for Sturgill, and we all knew before he even said that, that Sturgill’s his favorite. He just loves Sturgill. So the fact that he got asked that, I mean... He was like, I was gonna retire in a couple years anyway. So we were happy that he got that opportunity.

He was with us for, I think 13 years, which is a very long time. So we had amazing times with him and he did a lot to get our sound to a level where we were happy with it.

BR: Yeah, he’s one of my definite favorite sound engineers and he’s always been very nice to me too, as a fellow engineer, so I love it. That’s awesome for him.

JC: Cool, man.

BR: I guess one more question and I don’t know if there’s an answer that stands out, but besides your originals, UM does an awful lot of cover songs. Is there somebody who chooses more of those than the rest? Is there a cover song picker?

JC: Yeah. I don’t think anybody chooses more than the rest. It’s kind of, you know, you hear a song, it just sounds like, ooh, this is something that we could do live that might be kind of funny or clever or, it’s always gotta have that little twist.

BR: Of course.

JC: Yeah. So, the last show that we played was right after Ozzy passed away and over the years we learned how to play No More Tears, from 1988 or whatever. It’s got some crazy sick rifts in the middle, and nobody even played it at his big Black Sabbath Ozzy Celebration. So, we felt like that was our role to get in there. And that’s one that I sing lead on, which is just, it’s kind of ridiculous. I probably sing lead on like five or six, not many for good reason. And on N.M.T. Ozzy tunes down three half steps from E to D flat.

Well, our guitar boys are like, we’re not doing that. So I have to sing at a half step higher than Ozzy even sings it. I mean, it’s fucking crazy, you know? But that’s one that we do.

We also did, this is funny because this is another one that I sang, but again, just a joke. We played this place called the Levitt Pavilion in Westport, Connecticut, and the woman, the talent buyer told us that Peter Frampton left this, you remember the cover of Motley Crue’s Theater of Pain with like the theater masks?

BR: Yeah.

JC: The comedy and tragedy. But, anyway it was this huge thing. I mean, it was like these five or six foot tall wooden structures. Scotty brought it up before the show, he’s like,“Man, should we do Home Sweet Home?”

“I’m like, fuck, I know that one. I’ve done that a lot.” So we ended the show with Home Sweet Home by Motley Crue.

BR: So Peter Frampton left them there?

JC: Yes, I don’t know why.

BR: The last show with the tour in Connecticut or something?

JC: Yeah, and so this was the first time in 15 years that it had been used since Peter Frampton, which I thought was pretty special, you know?

BR: Nice. That’s cool. So that’s one way to get you to play a cool cover song? Just have a five foot tall prop there waiting?

JC: You know, see if you can mind trick us into doing something clever.

BR: I’ll have to think about it.

JC: That’s great.

BR: Cool, man. Well, I’m excited for the shows. I’m excited for the record. I think everybody’s gonna have a great time at Pine Creek. I know you guys will.

JC: I am very much looking forward to it, super stoked that we were able to make it happen this year. Appreciate your time, Brian.

BR: Yeah, for sure. I’ll talk to you soon.